It looks like the vet did a great job, after seeing the size of the lump I thought she'd basically have a hole in her ear. Her waking up and wanting to smell you sounds very sweet and it really speaks to her caring character/nature to want to account for all of her housemates. I'm relieved it's over, but anxious to hear about the results. Did the Dr have any thoughts on it? Had he seen something like it before?

What is the...stringy looking thing that looks like it's wrapped around the lump?

There's nothing on the lump, just... lump. Well, there's some fur stuck on one side of it, where he couldn't shave it because it was slightly open from attempts to express it in the hopes infection would get out. So it's really the lump and the small patch of skin/fur that was covering the lump. We were hoping it would be a small flap of skin cut and resealed, but it's a bona fide hole. He basically had to scrape the lump off the cartilage of the ear and came very close to having to cut some veins, but managed to skim them without causing a blow out.

/Gross alert!

Rob posted on my FB page what the doc said: "Her cytology [initial slide biopsy done in-office] showed abnormally shaped fibroblasts, usually football shaped but hers were circular. Two most common reasons for this would be a granuloma, or if it were to be malignant it would be fibrosarcoma. Even if it's that hopefully all was removed in surgery today and it just hoping there is no new regrowth. But certainly hoping for best possible news." He'll probably get lab results mid-week, but we aren't positive because the holiday may wonk into their schedule. If it's the granuloma, the surgery and following antibiotics she's on now will take care of it entirely. If it's fibrosarcoma, it is possible the cancer was completely self-contained and was removed in surgery. There's a chance it wasn't, there's a chance of regrowth, but there's a chance it was and that there won't be regrowth. And of course there's a chance it isn't cancer at all, and is just a weird infection that was so encapsulated the antibiotics we tried pre-surgery couldn't get to it.... So we'll have to see.

Murfins wrote:I love that Liberty is such an amazing cat *ahem* dog Mom that she her main priorities once home were to check on all of her cats. She sounds like the biggest sweetheart ever!

I tell you, if the world could forgive and love half as well as this little red dog... we'd be in a very different place.

Of course, because it's Liberty, they still don't freaking know what it is! We got the call on the way to dinner last night. The lab is still doing more testing, they don't know what the cause is, don't know why this weird growth decided to grow itself in my dog, but there are no signs of malignancy. I'll feel much more at ease when they give me an answer for what it IS, instead of just ruling out other things, but the ruling out of cancer is a big load off.